An
Index of 2,882 Sephardic Souls, Never Previously Published in English

Introduction

Moshe David Gaon
was born in Macedonia in 1889. After getting a degree from the Vienna
University (Austria), he immigrated to Erets Yisrael and settled in Jerusalem.
He was a school master in various primary schools in Jerusalem, Izmir
[Smyrna] (Turkey) and in Buenos Aires (Argentina).

Upon returning to
Jerusalem he became a member of the Sephardi Community Committee and at
the same time a Municipal Council member until his death in 1958. Very
active, he published many publications among which the most important
is this two volumes book, published in 1928 & 1938 and a bibliographical
historical survey of the Ladino press.

This is a biographical
dictionary of some 2,882Rabbis, Scholars and Notables etc., in Spain, Provence in France,
Italy, the Ottoman Empire including the Balkans and the Middle East and
North Africa. A
great majority of these persons have visited Erets Israel or immigrated
to it. A point
not to be forgotten: Jews went to the Holy Land to die there.

This documents were
graciously put together by Mathilde Tagger of Jerusalem. The translation
from the Hebrew, and the entire assemblage has taken over three months.
This data is exclusively provided here in English, and has not
been translated previously. Mathilde's generosity and efforts go beyond
words. We are appreciative to have people such as her working hand in
hand for our common quest of Sephardic genealogy.